The present invention relates to application packages for fumigant material such as aluminum phosphide and magnesium phosphide both of which are available in tablet or pellet form and which decompose upon contact with moisture in the atmosphere to form a toxic gas.
As is well known, the handling of pesticides, particularly those that result in the production of a toxic gas, are dangerous and require extreme care in handling and applying the pesticide to an area where one desires to eliminate rodent and insect parasites. Specifically, with the use of aluminum phosphide or magnesium phosphide such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,347 and which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application, it is important to avoid physical contact with the fumigant material itself. To this end, various types of mechanical applicators have been employed in the past to disperse the fumigants in pellet or tablet form throughout a locality or area. These specific fumigants decompose upon exposure to moisture in the atmosphere and generate a toxic gas which, if properly confined in an area, will effectively eliminate any pests and then dissipate to the atmosphere or break down into non-toxic products without leaving any harmful residue.
Due to the foregoing properties, it is obviously important that the pellets or tablets, once distributed, uniformly decompose to provide the required concentration of gas in an area and, that the decomposition period be relatively short to permit use of the product under various time, temperature and humidity conditions.
Previous application packages for these fumigants have required extensive periods for sufficient decomposition of the pellets or tablets to take place and therefore have resulted in undesirable delays in workers gaining access to the area that has been fumigated.
According to the present invention, it has now been found that a spun-bonded synthetic filament sheet can be used as the packaging material. More specifically, where the synthetic filament is a polyester and where the sheets, constructed according to a known process, are made with an average weight per unit of area of approximately 100 grams per square meter (g/m.sup.2), the best results are obtained in terms of decomposition time and package strength, tear resistance and handling and storage characteristics. The characteristic of polyester fibers, that they can be heat set in a specific configuration, makes this fiber very suitable for this type of packaging.